I introduced this book a while back. Finally got around to reviewing it. Here goes …
Love him or hate him, you’ve gotta respect Eminem for the impact he’s made in the music biz. Before the artist formerly known as Slim Shady hit the scene, white rappers were largely viewed as comedy routines. This includes noted acts like Vanilla Ice and The Beastie Boys, who some might call legends. Em changed the game, and the environment he grew up in has a lot to do with his meteoric rise to the top.

Eminem and the Detroit Rap Scene: White Kid in a Black Music World gives the reader an up close and personal look at the controversial rap superstar and the local rap scene in Detroit — past, present, and a glimpse at the potential future as well. This book features exclusive photos and interviews with many people who know Marshall Mathers on a personal level, including the legendary DJ Butter, Dogmatic, and the late great Big Proof, his bestfriend and the founder of Detroit’s D12.

In addition to the struggle that almost saw him give up before blowing up, the author sheds light on sensitive subjects like Em’s strained relationships with Kim and his Mother, as well as the drug overdose that nearly killed him. She also drops knowledge on how he is perceived by artists on the local scene, which I found very interesting seeing that many don’t feel he has done enough to put the city on the map, despite coming back for his crew in D12 and helping Detroit talents like Obie Trice and Royce D 5’9 obtain worldwide recognition.

What I enjoyed most about this book was simply witnessing how much work the author put into it. She revealed some interesting things I didn’t know about the Detroit rap game myself, and I’ve lived here all my life. It’s obvious that a lot of effort went into tracking down artists, putting these interviews together, and making sure the facts were accurate. There are several books about Mr. Mathers out there, but this one offers a perspective that is fresh, unique, and captivating from beginning to end.

I highly recommend this book to fans of Eminem and hip hop lovers in general.

Want to know more about Detroit? Check out Mr. Bill Collector, a fast-paced street lit tale set in the grimey ghetto environment that is the Motor City.

I discovered emcee Lazarus back in 2004 while investigating about the Detroit underground hip hop scene. Lazarus is far from being your average emcee. If you like the battle scene, Lazarus will ignite your passion with his astute wordplays. He allies a very good flow, a fantastic rapping technique, a good dose of verbal tornado towards his opponents. Mc Lazarus knows how to rap. Did you know? Kamran Rashid Khan is also a doctor.

Let me introduce you to the extraordinary rapper-doctor.

-What motivated you to become a rapper?

The biggest motivation for me was that I loved hip hop as form of expression. Hip hop is a vessel between an artist and the rest of the world. It’s also a vessel between the artist and himself. Through the use of this art, one can express their deepest feelings in thought and translate them onto a canvas that can be interpreted by others. When I was in high school, I found myself connecting with certain rappers that were asking to be heard and understood. Their music was built off of their personal story and struggle. With everything I had been going through in my own life, I wanted to tap into that medium. I wanted to spit my story out the world as well. I became fascinated with the way words played with each other to create a rhythmic pattern. Hip hop is a medium where the words you write on your pad become another instrument in the music. I used to put on instrumentals with my boys in high school and just start freestyling to the beat. Over time, this became my personal addiction. And then it just grew bigger and bigger.

-Why did you choose Lazarus, the Biblical character as your nickname?

I was without a stage name for the first year or two that I was rapping. My boys just called me Kamran. In the process of searching for a name that fit what I represented, one of the names that was brought to my attention was Lazarus. Lazarus, being a character that rose up from the dead, instantly connected with the idea that I stood for which was to rise from silence. Freedom of speech is very important to me. Living in a society where so much of what is experienced by a Muslim minoritiy is underrepresented and misconstrued, I felt that my presence would be one to enlighten and broadcast the tale of somebody who otherwise had no voice in the media. Even members of my own race and community discouraged me to pursue a career in music; there just wasn’t any place in that field for someone of Pakistani descent. At one point, all hope in my mind had died. Particularly after 9/11, I truly felt that my chances of making it as a rapper were finished. But then I started rising. I used the “Terrorist” stereotype against itself and started taking other rappers’ racial slurs in battle raps and deflected them back with triple the intensity. I wasn’t going to be silent anyomore. Lazarus rose from the dead.

-What is your outlook on the current state of hip hop?

It is devoid of stubstance. Hip hop used to be about passion, poetry and art. Look at KRS-One. Look at Rakim. Look at 2pac. These people put their soul into the music they put out. Their music represented something and was a way for them to express themselves. Today, music doesn’t represent anything except money, sex, drugs and clothes. I look at mainstream hip hop as the endpoint of a corporate machine. If you fit the stereotype that is projected to keep the masses dumbed down, then you get promoted and endorsed. You are essentially the outcome of picking randomly out of a box of millions to determine who the next generic street rapper is going to be. These artists get popular by way of forced promotion and as time passes, they get forgotten and so the cycle repeats itself. If an artist through this machine happens to come out and start rapping about something meaningful or relevant, they slowly start seeping back through the cracks and are trapped back underground. This is not to say that there aren’t any creative artists who are making names for themeselves, they are just managing themselves independently and building themselves without that commercial engine.

-What inspires you to write your songs?

Lazarus is an alter-ego for me. He is the Superman to my Clark Kent. When Clark Kent sees something troubling occur in his environment, he runs to the phone booth to transform into Superman who then comes to save the day. That’s Lazarus. Whenever I see something going on in my surroundings, whether that be in music, something personal, political, or if I feel that a certain issue fails to be addressed, then Lazarus will arrive at the scene and do that which others are either incapable of or too afraid to do. He’s the side of me that says, “Never say never,” or “Do or die.” He raises my confidence sky-high and allows me to be my own savior. A real life superhero. So when I feel there’s a need for that person, I call him out.

-What is the common point between being a doctor and a rapper?

There isn’t a common point between being a doctor and a rapper, but I make one. Both fields, in their own respective ways, require an unbelievable amount of perseverance and persistence. They just so happen to be polar opposites in terms of career choice. When I am practicing medicine, my focus is entirely on the patient in front of me. Likewise, when I’m in the studio, my focus is solely on making the best music I can make. The initial
presumption was that I was going to have to be pick one over the other. That was something I could never do. I was passionate to pursue both fields. So many people said, even using very humble and respectable approaches, that I would never make it past medical school with a career in music riding along with it. I did that. Then they said I wouldn’t be able to do it during residency, whilst working 80 hours a week in the hospital. I’m doing that. Now I am able to provide therapy to people with both my medicine and my music.

-What is the biggest challenge you ever faced as an emcee?

Initially, the biggest challenge for me as an emcee was to gain respect. In my early days, I felt that I had to do whatever I could do to separate myself from every other kid claiming to be able to spit. Everybody called themselves a skilled rapper the same way everybody thinks they’re Jordan playing ball. I realized early that there was a life force in me that made me feel invincible when I was on the mic. I trained it.
I mastered it. I would practice freestyling whenever I wasn’t studying. So that would mean being in the anatomy lab for four hours, then going outside on campus at Wayne State University and finding rappers to battle. This led me to competitions around Detroit and on various radio stations where I continued to battle and win. The big challenge after that, however, was to show that I wasn’t just a battle emcee. Most battle rappers can’t write songs. And to transcend from battling to song writing was necessary if I wanted to truly make an impact as an artist. I began to develop the art of putting narratives into songs. I wanted to tell stories about my life and my experiences. This is what started giving meaning to my presence as a rapper. My story being one that was distinct from the rest, I started to fill a void that was never tapped before in hip hop.

-Which artists have you collaborated with on the Detroit scene and nationwide?

I’ve collaborated with Stretch Money, Quest M.C.O.D.Y., Proof of D12 and Royce Da 5’9.” They were all great experiences. It was great to work with Royce on the song “Born To Die” and the late Proof on Helluva’s “I Dare You.” Recording with hip hop veterans definitely keeps my game sharp. I’ve also had the opportunity to open up for P. Diddy, D12 and G-Unit.

-Besides hip hop, what kind of music do you listen to?

I love anything that has a heart and a soul and feels good. I’m a fan of various different genres of music. I can listen to anything from Wu-Tang, N.W.A. and Biggie to Queen, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson and Al Green. Outside of that, I’m a big fan of good bhangra and reggae. If it’s good music, it’s good music. I love quality music.

-How have you promoted your music to get to where you are?

The internet has been a great vessel for me to expand my audience. I’ve gotten fans from various countries around the world who check up on me and support the music that I put out. Both “Let The Game Know” which was directed by MTV VMA director Anthony Garth and “Drug of Choice” which was filmed in Pakistan, both received over 1 million views on YouTube. Prior to that, you would’ve caught me putting flyers on people’s cars, going from club to club, battle to battle and selling mixtapes out of my pocket. I sell my music on iTunes and am in the process of starting my own independent company. Radio stations have been helpful in getting my music out. FM 98 WJLB in Detroit, the various college radio stations in Detroit, stations in Canada, India, Pakistan, and the UK have been putting a lot of my records on blast. BBC ranked “Drug of Choice” amongst their most popular songs. The Discovery Channel and Voice of America both shot documentaries about me and FOX Sports featured my theme song for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team which I composed a couple of years back. Those have been great avenues to get my music and story more exposed. Lastly, doing shows has been a great way to gain new fans. As hard as it is during residency, I still try to get on venues whenever I get the chance.

-What are your music plans for 2013?

I’m in the process of putting together a new mixtape to follow the last one I dropped which was called “Lazarus Story.” I also plan on dropping at least a couple new videos this year. In addition to that, I have plans to do some soundtrack work in Hollywood and possibly getting an overseas tour going. I look forward to getting a lot done this year.

Despite her very busy schedule, my friend and fellow writer Donna Kshir took the time to review my book in the Detroit Examiner. Before I share her words with you, I would like to state that I am very grateful for her review.

“I first met Isabelle Esling back in 2005. She was a talented young writer at The Eminem Blog. She immediately stood out to me, as she had a great passion and love for music. Isabelle has a gift of putting music into words. She has been enthusiastic about Eminem and the Detroit Rap Scene for as far back as I can remember.
If you want to know Eminem the rapper, you first have to understand who Marshall Mathers is, where he comes from, what inspired him, his fight and struggle to succeed as an artist, and how those events made him the man he is today.
A young Marshall came from very humble beginnings. Those early beginnings also came complete with a dysfunctional family and a history of drug dependency. He knows what it feels like to be different, to be bullied and experience racism. Experiencing life on both the black and white sides of the Detroit ghetto provided a young Marshall with a valuable look into two very different, separate cultures giving him a love for music that would set the stage and eventually change rap music forever.
Marshall would spend a decade perfecting his rhyming skills and writing lyrics, but also building a reputation. His dream of rapping appeared impossible and maybe foolish to some; his family, friends and even his educators. No one wanted to believe in Marshall, making it that much harder for him to believe in himself, but his best friend Proof would give him enough courage, strength and inspiration that eventually made him one of the most successful artists of our time.
Marshall had several approaches to music, but using his turbulent youth and relationships with his mother, Debbie, and girlfriend, Kim, created a rebellious alter-ego that would set the stage and make him the superstar he desired to be.
Whether you have been a fan of Eminem for years or if have recently discovered him, this book is for you! I highly recommend EMINEM and the Detroit Rap Scene: White Kid in a Black Music World. Isabelle answers the tough questions so many fans desire to know. This book goes deeply within the reach of Eminem’s early years, the Detroit Rap Scene, what it is like to be a struggling artist in Detroit and his rise to the top with many added bonuses.
Isabelle’s insight alone gives the book credibility, but she digs much deeper showing how Eminem and the Detroit Rap Scene have impacted our American culture. This book is more than a well-documented biography of the rapper’s life. Isabelle has been given her readers a level of access to Eminem that I feel no other journalist has come close to. Her insight takes the reader deep into the heart of the Detroit ghetto long before Eminem was a superstar. ”

Donna is a Bestselling, Platinum Level Expert Author, Executive Producer, Child Abuse Prevention Advocate, Animal Rights Advocate, Radio Talk Show Host, President and Chief Development Officer at Dreamcatchers for Abused Children. Donna’s goal is to educate society on domestic violence, teen dating violence and child abuse by creating a series of educational books. Currently she has 12 published books, and recently opened her own publishing company; K-Pott Books. For more information, email Donna at: [email protected]

National – Amber Communications Group, Inc.’s imprint Colossus Books has published EMINEM and the Detroit Rap Scene: White Kid in a Black Music World.

With never before seen photos and interviews and dedicated to the memory of Big Proof, the founder of D12 and Eminem, Eminem and the Detroit Rap Scene: White Kid in a Black Music World, will take you deep into the heart of the Detroit Ghetto with Eminem long before D12 and the Aftermath with D12.

If you want to understand Eminem, you have to understand where he comes from. You can’t even begin to think about Eminem without mentioning Detroit and the Detroit Rap Scene; Eminem and the Detroit Rap Scene: White Kid in a Black Music World, will bring you to the people, the rappers, the Detroit ghetto, the early years, that inspired him and made him become the person he is now.

I loved Kaos and Mystro, Awesome Dre, Proof, Smiley, Prince Vince, Jo to the D, Detroit Box, AWOL, DmW, a lot of local stuff. Awesome Dre’s ‘ Master Of Philology’, Merciless Amir’s ‘ A Day Without A Rhyme’ and Prince Vince’s ‘ Changes’ were some of my favorites. It made me feel proud to be from the D and made the possibilities of making some noise out of the city seem more realistic. I think I owe a lot to the foundation they all laid, for sure. (Eminem).

Coming from a poor background in Detroit, Eminem struggled hard while being underground and made his own way to become a superstar. His life story is far from being a fairy tale. Bullied at school, experiencing reverse racism on a daily basis, coming from a dysfunctional family with a drug dependant history; Marshall Mathers carried the dream to become a rapper: A dream that was so huge and seemed so foolish, that neither his teachers, his family, nobody…except Big Proof, and then Dr. Dre would take him seriously.

Growing up on the black side of 8 Mile in Detroit, the young boy totally integrated into the culture and focused on the same musical interest as his friends. Eminem also lived on the other side of 8 Mile in Detroit, where he had a bunch of poor white friends as well. Experiencing both sides of the ghetto provided Eminem with treasured bridges to both cultures.

With over 100 million albums sold worldwide, and Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, ASCAP Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, Gold and Platinum Albums, under his belt, Eminem is one of the best-selling rap artists ever. Discovered by legendary record producer Dr. Dre, Eminem was signed to Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment Record Label in 1999 and he brought along his D12 rap group members and other Detroit rappers, all who would go on to have their own record deals and sell Gold and Platinum Albums.

EMINEM and the Detroit Rap Scene: White Kid in a Black Music World chapters include: “The Detroit Hip Hop Scene”; “The Dirty Dozen – The Story Behind the D12 Group”; “Eminem’s Artistic Evolution”; “White Kid in a Black Music World”.

Eminem and the Detroit Rap Scene: White Kid in a Black Music World was written by Isabelle Esling a graduate of the University of Metz, France, where she studied Liberal Arts and Languages. Ms. Esling has been teaching foreign languages in public and private schools as a German and French teacher.

With a deep passion for writing and music, black music in particular, Ms. Esling discovered Eminem in 2001 and has been enthusiastic about his career and music ever since. In 2003 Gavin Sheridan, a technical writer and professional blogger offered Ms. Esling a position as a contibuting writer for his blog.

In 2005 with Gavins help Ms. Esling started the Eminem blog, www.theeminemblog.com/

where she has internationally discussed and written about Eminem, the Detroit Rap Scene and other Hip Hop related subjects. Isabelle Esling has interviewed many important Detroit artists such as Dina Rae, DJ Butter, Big Proof of D12 and many others. The Eminem Blog has gained her a worldwide audience of readers and she has contributed to numerous Hip Hop websites such as Music Mouth UK, Detroit Rap.com, Michigan Bands and D Townie. In 2011 Ms. Esling was signed to Amber Communications Group, Inc.

Ms. Esling’s challenge was to get to the essence of the Detroit ghetto and its rappers, so that she could find the real character of Marshall Mathers III. That meant interviewing, sometimes arguing, perhaps disagreeing and spending countless hours with the people who Eminem grew up with and encountered on his way to the undisputed throne of rap.

Isabelle Esling was born in Saint Avold, a little French town near the German border. She currently resides in London, England and can be reached for interviews at [email protected] .

Whether we like it or not, a small number of visitors to a city that has suffered a series of unfortunate events come to witness, photograph, and write about the most physical manifestations of those events: our ancient buildings.

These buildings, which both dot our skyline and our neighborhoods, obviously don’t tell the whole story of what’s happening now in Detroit. But they are so amazing that people just can’t look away, much like when given the opportunity to secretly see people with physical deformities. So for years, city leaders have hoped to remove these “eyesores” from the landscape.

Whether this is really for the better of Detroit is still up for debate. A number of high profile ruins have been saved after years, decades, in a state of “ruin” or the perception of abandonment. See: the Stott, the Book-Cadillac, the Argonaut, the Fort Shelby Hotel (Doubletree), the Kales Building, the Detroit Building, the Whittier Apartments, and others including a great number of smaller ones. And the David Broderick Tower in progress and whatever happens after Dan Gilbert finishes purchase of the First National Building. Yes, there is still the United Artists (an Illitch property) and the infamous Michigan Central Station (Manuel Moroun). So there will still be ruin porn for photographers for the near future.

All of those words I wrote are an introduction to an article that appeared in Guernica, a magazine of art and politics. The article is “Detroitism“. It’s a long read, yes, but it talks about the ruin porn aspect of Detroit. The people who come looking for it, publish luxuriously priced books on it, the people who sell or refuse to sell it. And what it all means to the rest of the country, and in the minds of interested artists throughout the world. Detroit ruin photography is so interesting to non-Americans because to them Detroit and the state its currently in represents America to them. And they’re baffled at how the world’s richest nation allows it to continue. Similarly, Detroit represents southeast Michigan and the entire state of Michigan to the rest of the country. Nobody outside of Michigan knows what a “southeast Michigan” is. But the shame of Detroit’s ruins keeps them, in their own weakness and lack of self-confidence, from admitting that they’re from Metro Detroit.

There’s the saying that any publicity is good publicity. I’m not sure I believe that. Detroit gets mostly bad publicity. The worst comes from self-hating Detroiters themselves as you’d see most places online. There’s the saying “shitting in your own back yard”. But national media is guilty of this. Partly because they find it easier to republish what others have already said. Even Guernica is guilty of this. The recommended article that came up is about Detroit as a food desert. While there’s some truth in lack of Walmarts, the city does have chain supermarkets and large full-service independent supermarkets.

And Whole Foods is opening soon, so can we stop with the ruin-porn-food-desert-ification of Detroit?

Take a look at the world’s largest cities by the size of their economies. Detroit was at #22 in 2005 but is projected to be the 26th largest economy in 2020. That can mainly be attributed to the rise of massive metropolises in developing countries like BRIC nations.

But there will be some shifting around even in the US. San Francisco will drop several places, but Atlanta will rise above it. Phoenix, Minneapolis, and San Diego will drop off the list altogether.

With the current debt ceiling crisis, loss of confidence in the world’s largest economy, and the weakening of the dollar (which is otherwise good for American exports but would reduce the size of cities on this list), what does the future hold for American city economies?

Metro Detroit must stay competitive and be aware of the world economy. We must stop thinking Oakland County versus City of Detroit.

Urban farming has been going on in Detroit for a long time now. But it’s not just in Detroit. Cities all across America, from Los Angeles to Denver to Minneapolis to our nation’s capital, now have urban farms. But Detroit is still the center of the organization online at urbanfarming.org. HuffPo has a piece about the story behind Urban Farming:

It started when former Prince protégé/singer-songwriter Taja Sevelle — who by age 15 had lived in a city, on a farm and in a remote forest near the Canadian border — moved to Detroit to record a CD for Sony. The deep poverty and vast vacant lots in the recession-scarred town inspired her to put her music career on the back burner and create an enterprise that would tackle the problem with a long-term, sustainable vision.

While it’s still highly debatable just how much the population of the city of Detroit lost in the decade from 2000 to 2010, it’s clear that there was a net loss. But the real picture is told by this map from the Detroit News: some areas lost, some areas gained.

The vast east side of Detroit, already having worse problems compared to the west side of Detroit, experienced the deepest population losses. But areas surrounding Hamtramck saw large gains, a sign of positive influence from that enclave. There are other notable bright (green) spots and basically stable (yellow) blocks.

Via the New York Times which gives us another Sperling’s Best Places ranking (where aside from Ann Arbor, Michigan’s cities usually do poorly) but this time of the most dangerous places to live in America from an acts-of-God point-of-view.

Oklahoma, Texas, and much of the south and far west Midwest are at risk of tornadoes, like the recent massive twister in Alabama. Michigan does get some every so often, but not as regularly.

The west coast, especially California, is at risk of experiencing a Tokyo, Japan magnitude earthquake, and who knows if we’ll be as well-prepared for the aftermath. But there’s also a high risk of earthquakes in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, as well as South Carolina. Again, the Midwest isn’t completely safe.

When it comes to hurricanes though it’s generally the south. Not only is Detroit getting all the jobs whereas Miami, Florida is still losing them, but Floridians can generally expect hurricanes every year.